Azura

Bzzt...Bzzt...Bzzt…

I can faintly hear the buzzing of my alarm clock, indicating that it’s time for me to wake up. The buzzing continues for about another minute before I get fed up with it. I peek one eye open to see where my alarm is, extending one hand, I shut it off with an annoyed slam to the snooze button. With a relieved huff, I turn over and try to fall asleep again.

Nothing can ruin this peacefulness.

Oh, how wrong I am.

I feel my hopes and dreams of further slumber be extinguished when the door to my room begins to slowly open. In comes, Max, my oldest brother, probably here to complete his daily task of waking me up. When he is fully in my room, he tiptoes to the side of my bed but has yet to notice that I am fully awake and glaring at him, because he is staring at his feet trying to step lightly on the floor. When he finally makes it beside my bed, he crouches down, lets out a breath of relief, and looks up from his feet, met by my wrath-filled eyes.

The shock is evident, then the fear comes through, and he now understands that he is in big trouble. He knows I’m not a morning person in the slightest, so he comes into my room to turn off my alarm because I can’t hear it and then comes back 5-10 minutes later to wake me up. But today, he was late, I had to turn off my alarm, and he came to wake me up 3 minutes early.

“I’m in big trouble, huh?” he asks but solely for confirmation because he knows my rules for the morning. I look at him with my same unwavering glare and nod.

“Would it help if I brought you breakfast in bed, as an apology for being late?” he asks hopefully. Sitting up excitedly, I nod my head fast. Max knows that a way to make me forgive you is totally with food. He reveals a tray with my favorite dish: eggs and pancakes.

While enjoying my meal, I sign to Max, “Why do I have to wake so early in the morning?”

“You remember we moved, right? Well now you have to go to school in this town.” he explains.

Well now all this made sense, I guess. I just didn’t expect to go back to school so soon. Getting up out of bed, I sign to Max that I’m going to get dressed, and he nods then walks out of my room, closing the door. Turning to my closet, I pick out an outfit for my first day of school. I decide to go with some black jeans, black laced vans, and an orange sweatshirt, so that I’d be comfortable, cute, and comfortable.

I brush my hair in the bathroom and decide to just leave it down so that it hides my hearing aids.

Making my way downstairs, I see my mom making some kind of smoothie, Max drinking some coffee at the dining table, and Jaxon, my older twin, on his phone on the couch. Mom is the first to see me and smiles at me, I smile back. Heading towards the table, I sit next to Max. He looks at me while taking a sip of his coffee, when he stops he lifts the cup as if asking if I want any, I shake my head.

“Sorry I was late this morning. I was making you breakfast and lost track of time.”

‘It’s okay I sign to him

He nods and gives me a side hug, “Do you want me to drive you to school?” he asks against my temple. I nodded with a smile.

“Okay, let me go get dressed real quick if that’s the case.” he grunts while getting up from his chair.

There is one reason I dislike Max, he takes forever to get ready! I’ve been waiting here for 20 minutes already. This school starts in the next 20 minutes.

‘Max! Hurry up!’ I think to myself.

Just as I finished my thought, Max and all his cleaned glory wants to walk downstairs smiling without a care in the world.

“Let’s go.”

“Yeah, go dump face, before my beloved sister is late for school.” Jaxon insults Max.

“Shut up, you delinquent arsonist.” Max fires back.

Before Jaxon could say anything else, Max grabs my bag and pushes me out the door to his car. Ten minutes later, we’re pulling into the parking lot of my new school, Lunar High.

“Do you want me to walk you in?” Max asks.

I shake my head.

“Be safe. Call me if you need me. If the call is over 20 seconds, I’m rushing over here, understand?” he says with all seriousness.

Smiling, I nod my head, then kiss him on the cheek and head towards my first mission of finding the office.

Walking through the parking lot was uncomfortable. I was getting stared at left and right, especially by the boys, which I didn’t like. Finally, getting inside the building, I walk for a bit before finding the office. It was almost as if they were trying to hide the office when they built this building. Opening the office door, I head to the desk where a sweet-looking older lady sat on the phone. While she was still on the call, I grabbed a sticky note and wrote, ‘Excuse me, my name is Azura Sparrows, and I’m the new student here.’ I put the note on her computer screen, she looked up at me, smiled, then looked down and read the note, but didn’t say anything. She punched in something on the computer then hung up the phone.

“Sorry about that hun, you can head into the principal’s office for your school information, okay?” she says sweetly. I nod and head towards the door she pointed to. Poking my head into the office, I see a strong-looking man sitting behind the desk working on some paperwork. He had pitch-black hair, brushed back with gel, and wore his glasses a bit further down the nose of his bridge. He was a very good-looking man.

As swiftly and quietly as I could, I closed the door. Still facing the door, I try to control my breathing, until I hear the man clear his throat, and I completely stop breathing. Turning around slowly, I face the man and let out a breath when I see him smiling at me.

“Sorry, if I frightened you, Azura.” he apologizes. I nod signing it was okay.

“Welcome to Lunar High. I’ve called down a student with some of the same classes as you, to tour you. Is that alright?” Harrison asks. I nodded again.

“I’m aware that you’re mute and partially deaf, so I’ve notified your teachers.” He informs me. I sign ‘thank you while smiling.

“But I do have to say, you are more than prepared to have graduated already, based on your grades and credits.” he states. Grabbing a piece of paper I write, ‘I enjoy being in a classroom with others and doing the same work as them, so please don’t say anything about my grades to the others?’ Harrison reads the note and nods telling me that he’d make it seem as if I fail instead, which I appreciate. Being smart has its perks, but also has major downsides.

As Harrison hands me my schedule there is a knock at the door. He gets up and yanks the door open, in walked a beautiful brunette whose eyes were as bright as an amber stone.

“Hi! My name is Jazzmine, but my friends call me Jazz.” She was very kind; a little loud, but nothing adjusting my hearing aids couldn’t help. I waved my hand and smiled.

She chuckled, “Shy much?” I blush a little out of embarrassment while looking at my feet.

The bell rings telling us to head for the first period, we waved bye to Harrison and headed to class. Walking with Jazzmine was fun. She told me a lot about her older brother Alex, and her best friend Lily, who she made a point of was Asian. As Jazzmine was talking I got lost in my thoughts, I hate being the “new kid”, all the teachers introducing you is nerve-wracking. I’m brought back to the real world when Jazzmine gasps, “Did I tell you that Lily has an older brother named Cameron? Of course, he’s Asian too.” I shook my head and smiled to hide that I wasn’t listening.

Reaching the classroom Jazzmine tells me this class is History. The room was loud but got quiet when we walked in. There were whispers throughout the classroom. Moments later, the teacher walks in and everyone moves to their rightful seats, including Jazzmine. I had no idea where to go, so I just stayed, awkwardly, in the front of the room with everyone looking at me. Luckily, my torment was short-lived because the teacher walked in.

“Alright everyone, please give a warm welcome to Azura, who moved here from Cresent.” she said Cresent with a sort of passive-aggressive tone.

The classroom got eerily silent, you could hear a pin drop from a mile away. The silence was something I was used to, but this silence was awkward and uncomfortable. After a few awkward moments of silence and glaring, the teacher cleared her throat and told me to take a seat. I sat down in a seat near the back of the class, but only after a girl moved her seat, so she wouldn’t have to sit with me. After that, I zoned out. I turned my hearing aids down to the lowest setting and put my head down until the end of class.

I faced the glares, whispers, and pointing all day and had no clue besides the clear fact it had something to do with me being from Cresent. The bell had rung and it was time for lunch. When I got to the cafeteria, the glares only got worse. I have no idea what made these people hate me already, but it has something to do with the fact that I’m from Cresent. While in line, I could feel the eyes of everyone in the cafeteria on my head, and I was wondering where had Jazzmine gone? She is supposed to be my guide, because I’m new, and I don’t know where anything is, but maybe she’s mad at me just like everyone else is. This anger was insane, even the lunch ladies didn’t want to serve me. So I just grabbed a strawberry yogurt smoothie, paid and left the cafeteria, and went to the library.

The library is going to be my sanctuary if things continue this way, seriously.